


Hungry

by roguefaerie



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Dysfunctional Family, Food, Gen, Money, POV Child, POV Dean Winchester, Poverty, Theft, Young Winchesters (Supernatural)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-24
Updated: 2019-09-24
Packaged: 2020-10-12 12:00:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20563961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roguefaerie/pseuds/roguefaerie
Summary: Dean manages to find $5 in Dad's wallet, and Dad's still a superhero but Dean's hungry.





	Hungry

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Groceries](https://archiveofourown.org/works/840839) by [Redrikki](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Redrikki/pseuds/Redrikki). 
  * In response to a prompt by [Redrikki](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Redrikki/pseuds/Redrikki) in the [2019remixrevivalmadness](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/2019remixrevivalmadness) collection. 

> **Prompt:**
> 
> All remixes have remix in the tittle. 
> 
> Safe work is For The Greater Good (https://archiveofourown.org/works/12510544/chapters/28484916)
> 
> Feel free to remix any of my other fic in any of my other fandoms.

Dean’s hungry, and it blots out everything else. Well, almost everything else. Nothing ever blots out Sammy. Dean is so hungry, he feels just enough anger under the surface of the drumbeat of his brother’s name in his heart. 

Dean can’t get that angry, not in the wrong direction, because then Sammy wouldn’t be safe, and they’d both still be hungry. God, he’s hungry. He tries to pick things Sammy would want at the store always, but sometimes it’s all a dime short. This time, though, he knows he’ll manage to come in under whatever’s in Dad’s wallet. He’s good at that. He barely ever messes it up. Barely ever. He won’t today.

He has $5, and he tells himself that he’s going to have to steal, as he pockets the money and maybe that shows on his face. He’s angry that he’ll have to steal, a little angry, because it’s going to make him and Sammy nervous in the store, so he leaves Dad’s wallet out like a flag that says, _I’m not angry, but I did this. So sue me._

He fights through blooming nausea as he sees his dad’s flayed-open cheek once more, the way it was cut nearly to the bone and there’s no doctor who can handle a hunter’s stories, much less their lives.

The clothes they’re about to put on don’t fit, but Dean’s stitched the barren parts with the almost-holes together several times just like he stitches Dad’s face. He’s proud of the work even though something hurts deep in his gut about it when they put their layers on. One because it’s that cold, and one layer to hide in. Some of the stitching is visible, but he’ll have to do with what they have.

He breathes.

He’s barely able to pay anything any attention and yet he has to. This is important.

He can barely register the words coming out of Sammy’s mouth, but this is it--Sammy’s asking for something Dean’s never heard of and this is when they steal. Under Sam’s coat.

They pick the right cashier and when the total is $4.90 (with the weird _marmalade_ Sammy asked for still in hiding and that’s just a given somehow because it was Sam’s freaky request) Dean’s not as excited, not as triumphant as he could be. Maybe if they’d had $10 to begin with. It doesn’t feel like a victory. It just feels like cold cereal and a sour stomach.

His chest hurts and he doesn’t think about it. He makes himself find the gumball machine. He keeps his eyes on it. Then before he asks the cashier for anything he makes his eyes go bigger.

_Look innocent. Look innocent._

Dean already knows that he has to try, really try, to do that. Whether anything is in Sam’s coat or not.

He turns his attention on the cashier, the full wattage of his calm-collected-older-brother look, makes himself look like he’s got Sammy under control.

And easy as that, it works. It works and he even gets a reward. He can see the cashier’s face soften so that all of the lines move around and her eyes brighten up. The older lady has hair that is almost blue but the life is still there in her face. Especially for him and Sam. She passes him two extra nickels, four, and he watches as she sneaks change out of her own pocket to replace them in the drawer and says, “You boys enjoy. Be good, okay?”

Be good.

He focuses on the gumball machine. (He’s always understood machines, or meticulous tasks. He always has to. He has one job, but that job is complicated.)

Dean’s gumball is cherry and he knows it’ll make his stomach feel full. He could keep at least one more but he wants Sam to feel full the most so Sam gets three nickels. And his marmalade. 

Dean is so tired. Kid asks for marmalade and of course a weird look is always warranted but Dean can never say no. He just knows he has to find it, whatever it is, and then he realizes it’s the orange stuff and he thinks, _I hope you really like this, kid._ He knows Sam is going to get the whole jar to himself, so he better eat it.

His chest hurts again and he sucks down the sugar from his gumball as Sammy says, “Three?” and smiles so big, but it’s the kind of smile that makes Dean see that Sam’s eyes are still sad-scared.

“Let’s get out of here,” he says, and twists the knob on the machine as fast as he can to give Sam his prizes.

And then they’re gone, and he tells himself no one in this town will ever see them again.


End file.
